PLAN decommissions four Type 051 destroyers

The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has decommissioned four of its Type 051 or Luda-class destroyers in a ceremony at the naval base in Lushun on Thursday, May 16.

Kaifeng, Dalian, Zunyi, and Guilin have served with the PLAN for over 30 years at the time of their decommissioning.

This leaves only two Luda-class destroyers, Zhanjiang and Zhuhai, remaining in Chinese service out of an original 17 ships. This number included Guangzhou, which sank on March 9, 1978, following an onboard explosion.

The Luda-class destroyers are based on the Project 56 or Kotlin-class destroyers originally fielded by the former Soviet Union in the 1950s.

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